In the comments of our story, many members of the CBC Community thought that the penalties handed to Escobar were appropriate.

"This was an appropriate, balanced response by the Jays organization. Honestly, speaking as a gay person myself, a heartfelt apology would also have been fine. Escobar's actions were ignorant and wrong but not malicious, and the damage was not severe. What he did should not be given a pass, but nor should they throw the book at him," said sdegrace.

"What the player did was inappropriate and offensive to me and many others, but at the same time it wasn't a rant expressing outright hatred and seems to have been more a display of stupidity than outright bigotry. I think the punishment fits," said Thinking Mom.

"Sometimes pro athletes remind us that they can be just as young and stupid as the next guy, and I`d say for Escobar it`s been an embarrassing lesson learned the hard way...time to move on," said riverrat14.

"Finally, slurs against gay people are being taken as seriously as epithets against any other minority. Praise the Jays for donating the idiot's salary to relevant charities. To all you detracting pundits, this isn't about political correctness, it's about respect. Would you still condone him if the slur was racist rather than homophobic?" said trmmtl.

"After reading the article, it seems this incident has been blown way out of proportion," said Red Rover.

But some thought the punishment didn't go far enough.

"Funny thing, his entire team knew he was doing it, and none of them had the guts to tell him it was a bad idea?? If you're going to punish him, maybe the 'team' should get a little slap as well," said Canonclicker.

"While the words were hard to see from a distance, they were plainly visible to all his teammates and coaches. Doesn't say much for them as a group. If a fan hadn't brought this to light would the Jays organization have done anything about it? I think it unlikely," said broughad.

Thanks, as always, for your feedback. Feel free to continue the debate and discussion in the comments section below.